I was in Central London recently and had a walk around the new development next to Victoria Station SW1. Very impressive. They blend in well with the old buildings by contrasting rather than emulating. Some nice touches in the street furniture and smaller details.See our section on Steel Buildings here >

We have a large green building section in this website. There have been a lot of stories about plastics ending up in the oceans, polluting and killing birds and animals. See our green building section here >

Plastic recycling

One issue is that plastic is itself a recycled byproduct of the oil industry. This means it is very cheap, almost free, so gets used everywhere, and more and more. For instance, individual pears and fruits are now routinely packed in clear plastic. All this waste ends up somewhere.
Another issue is the plastic nodules that are the start point for injection moulding (I once worked in a plastics factory, a very unhealthy place!). These are tiny and get lost all over the supply chain, and they are so tiny (1-2mm) they are impossible to clean up. They just get in the water system and end up in the seas.

Finally a way has been made to recycle two of the most used plastics which do not blend together, so have currenlty to be sorted and recycled separately. A new chemical can be added to the materials so they will mix, so don’t need sorting out, saving a lot of effort.
Of course this has yet to happen, and is only for new plastic, when they get aroind to it.Read more about the new plastic additions here (new page) >

FREE BUILDING DIY APP and FILES

I have made some useful files for my free white board app ‘Notes Story Board v 2.2’.Get this for free here now >
Special summer offer, usual cost £1.99.What is it?Easy to use zooming ‘any size’ whiteboard app for Windows and Apple Mac*

Load text files, images, write new files, notes, ideas etc. Then arrange in order to suit. Use color to mark items or organise.Files

Gardens and Landscaping Monthly Year Planner

Year Planner (general use)

DIY and Building small project

Storage Locations (many uses!)

Building project (larger scale with BIM Building Information Modelling notes)

Be imaginative – many other uses too.
These files are useful for many projects. They can be fully edited for your own job, or something unrelated.
If you are using a larger system such as BIM, you can export from these as Word Processor, HTML Web, and image.

Many different blank templates are included, such as 4 boxes, 6 boxes, one large box, blank etc.

Wandsworth Council, a large borough in South London, has exceeded targets for affordable housing new builds. This means low cost, market cost, social rent and starter homes with shared ownership, where the tenants pay a part of the mortgage towards part-ownership, which can be traded.

There were 501 low cost homes newly built in Wandsworth 2015/16. This is over twice the previous year’s total. Wandsworth Council say there are 1742 more affordable homes on the way.

There is a huge amount of new build in the London area, and also conversions of office blocks allowed via relaxing of change of use, from office to residential, laws. There is a glut of so-called luxury 2 bed flats, all much the same, for the overseas market so it is good to see more affordable housing getting built.

Estate agents use branded boards to advertise their sales or lets at the actual property. This is quite useful if you are moving to a new area, as you can walk around and collect up the various agents’ details.
Nowadays it is all done on the internet so this physical process is less important.

Boards are unpopular, especially on estates, where there can be many boards put up. They are an eyesore and Wandsworth Council in South Lindon has made a stand.

Boards are not banned as such, but now need planning permission in four areas – Putney, Clapham, Balham and Lavender Hill. There is also an online breach of rules form so you can report any naughty agents.

Water in the morning, if required. Especially water any newly planted shrubs, plants etc.
If anything is getting too overcrowded, separate out (bulbs etc).
Plenty of growth and flowering going on, have to take off the dead heads when needed.
Add supports for any tall growing plants.
Vegetable gardens going strong. Keep an eye out for pests like black aphids (see pictures below, from Hampton Court vegetable garden).
We have been quite busy this year so will provide more photos than text this month!